/*
 *  Copyright 2007-2008 by Matthias Buch-Kromann <mbk.isv@cbs.dk>.
 *  *
 *  This file is part of the Open-source Dependency Toolkit (OSDT),
 *  see http://code.google.com/p/open-source-dependency-toolkit.
 *  
 *  The OSDT is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 *  it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as 
 *  published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of 
 *  the License, or (at your option) any later version.
 * 
 *  The OSDT is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 *  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 *  GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
 * 
 *  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public 
 *  License along with the OSDT in the files COPYING and COPYING.LESSER.
 *  If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses.
 */

package org.osdtsystem.lexicons;

import org.osdtsystem.inputs.Channel;
import java.util.List;

/**
 * Public interface for lexicons for an input channel that is an instance of type &lt;C&gt;.
 * @param <C> the input channel type supported by the lexicon
 * @author Matthias Buch-Kromann <mbk.isv@cbs.dk>
 */
public interface Lexicon<C extends Channel> {
    /**
     * Lookup lexemes in the input channel that start at the given position. 
     * @param channel the input channel
     * @param position the starting position for the new lexeme
     * @return a list of all lexeme matches
     */
    public List<LexemeMatch<C>> lookupLexemes(C channel, long position);
    
    /**
     * Lookup lexemes in the input channel at the first input position strictly 
     * after the given position where some lexeme matches the input. 
     * @param channel
     * @param position
     * @return a list of all lexeme matches
     */
    public List<LexemeMatch<C>> lookupLexemesAfter(C channel, long position);
}
